`Cell' Gives The Creeps

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December 22, 2000

The Cell (New Line, 110 minutes, R, priced for rental, DVD available): The Cell is far from a perfect movie, but it is the creepiest one since the Sixth Sense.

The story begins in two places. Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn), an FBI agent, is on the trail of a serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio) who is in the habit of drowning his young, female victims in a glass-enclosed cell. Meanwhile, a psychologist named Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is using an advanced scientific technique to enter the mind of a comatose child.

These stories converge when the killer falls into a coma while one of his victims is still alive in that drowning cell. To try to find the cell before it floods again, Peter asks Catherine to enter the killer's mind.

If this description of the plot suggests a high-tech Silence of the Lambs, well, on some level, that's just what The Cell is. The plot, in fact, is no more original than it is plausible.

What makes this movie well worth a look is the atmosphere that director Tarsem Singh (who is often known simply as Tarsem) manages to evoke with his use of unsettling details.

He does this in a chillingly humdrum way when he's dealing with the killer's twisted outer world. We see the bottles of bleach that the psycho uses to turn his victims' skin white, the tools he employs to transform them into human dolls and the small rings he has embedded in his back so that he can hover above them.

Creepy in an altogether different way are the surreal scenes within the killer's mind, which jump out from the screen with super-saturated colors. A first-timer when it comes to feature films, Tarsem uses what he has learned making music videos (including R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion") and commercials to create an original, disturbing look for these scenes.

With such terrific actors as Lopez, D'Onofrio and Vaughn, it's a shame the script, by co-producer Mark Protosevich, didn't spend a little more time on the characters.

As the title suggests, the story concerns a couple of guys called Chuck and Buck, men who were inseparable as children.Now in their late 20s, they have gone separate ways. Chuck, now known as Charlie, moved to Los Angeles where he has become a hotshot record producer. Buck, meanwhile, stayed at home where, for the past five years, he has cared for his ailing mother.

It's her death that sets the plot in motion. Buck writes to his old friend about the situation, and Charlie responds by coming to the funeral.

But he later comes to regret that sentimental gesture when an overwhelmed Buck gathers up his meager belongings and moves to L.A. to be near Charlie, who would like to help his old friend, but there's a catch. Whenever the two of them are alone together, Buck starts saying things about sex that completely freak Charlie out.

Mike White, who plays Buck, is evidently a pretty brilliant guy. The creator of the smart TV series Freaks and Geeks, he also wrote this film.

The direction by Miguel Arteta is a bit wobbly. And although White is terrific as Buck, the acting, overall, is uneven.

Chris Weitz, who plays Charlie, isn't bad, but his performance is too interior. While it's essential that some of Charlie's thoughts remain hidden, he ought to come into somewhat sharper focus than he does here.

`LABOUR' PAINS

** Love's Labour's Lost (Miramax, 96 minutes, PG, priced for rental, DVD available): Not only is this musical film a travesty of Shakespearean tradition but, worse, it's a travesty of a great Hollywood tradition.

The plot concerns the King of Navarre, played by Alessandro Nivola, and his three closest friends, played by Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Lillard and Adrian Lester. So that they can focus on their university studies, these young men vow to give up women for three years.But this not-so-well-laid plan is threatened when the beautiful Princess of France (Alicia Silverstone) and her three lovely attendants (Emily Mortimer, Carmen Ejogo, Natascha McElhone) arrive on urgent diplomatic business.

Branagh -- who adapted the script, directed the film and stars in it -- surely loves both Shakespeare's comedies and movie musicals. And, evidently, he has noticed that both rely on the same kinds of plot devices: mistaken identities, misdirected messages, etc. So in what can only be described as a tragically misguided attempt to popularize his two beloved traditions, he has attempted to combine them.